Thailand-Laos rail deal

Thailand-Laos rail deal

BANGKOK (DPA): Thailand and Laos signed a transportation agreement yesterday paving the way for the two countries to be linked by railway, Thai radio reports said.

The agreement was signed in Vientiane, Laos, by Lao Transportation Minister Phao Bounnaphol and his Thai counterpart Suwat Liptapanlop, said the Thai News Agency.

The transportation treaty cleared the last legal obstacle to the construction of a rail link over the Friendship Bridge which spans the Mekong River, defining the border between the two neighboring countries.

Two months ago the Lao government granted a concession to the Thai firm Pacific Transportation Company Limited, a subsidiary of the Sahaviriya OA Group, to build more than 1,200 kilometer of railway tracks in Laos, including a 12-kilometer track linking Vientiane, the capital, to the bridge.